Second Proud Boys member arrested for violent NYC brawl

By Caroline Linton

October 20, 2018 / 1:41 AM
/ CBS News

A second member of the far-right group Proud Boys was arrested and arraigned Friday one week after a violent brawl outside a New York City Republican club. The arrest came after the group's leader, Gavin McInnes, said he was arranging for the surrender of members wanted by the New York Police Department.

John Kinsman, 39, was arrested Friday morning. He was charged with attempted gang assault, attempted assault, riot, and criminal possession of a weapon.

At an arraignment Friday night, prosecutors called Kinsman the "single most vicious" member of Proud Boys, the New York Post reported.

The NYPD said they are still seeking seven members of the Proud Boys in connection to the brawl after McInnes' speech at the Metropolitan Republican Club. Geoffrey Young, 38, was arrested Thursday.

The NYPD told The New York Times they have opened a "regular criminal investigation" into the group.

The altercation between the Proud Boys members and anti-facist protesters, or antifa, broke out about a block away when six people dressed in black and wearing masks confronted Proud Boys members, NYPD's Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said Monday. One of those dressed in black threw a bottle at the Proud Boys group and a fight ensued for about 38 seconds until uniformed officers intervened.

Slurs and expletives can be heard in video showing the fight, as men kicked and punched several protesters on the sidewalk. The NYPD released footage Monday showing the altercation from an alternate angle in hopes of identifying the participants.

McInnes told the Times the rest of the group's members would soon be in custody.

McInnes, 48, who co-founded Vice Media and left the company in 2008, created the Proud Boys in 2016. The club's Facebook event for the speech described him as the "rebel of the right" and "banned from Twitter — this Godfather of the Hipster Movement has taken on and exposed the Deep State Socialists and stood up for Western Values."

But the Southern Poverty Law Center says the Proud Boys and their leaders "regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists."

Last week, the Metropolitan Republican Club defended their decision to invite McInnes in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "Gavin's talk on Friday night, while at times was politically incorrect and a bit edgy, was certainly not inciting violence," the club's officials said in a statement.

Ahead of the speech, vandals smashed windows, filled a keypad lock with glue and spray-painted the doors of the Metropolitan Republican Club. A note left at the scene said the damage was "just the beginning."